Do you want to run a cooking channel? Then this article is for you. It’s no secret that cooking channels on YouTube have become incredibly popular. How can you penetrate this niche, where competition is off the charts? Especially when, in addition to a well-equipped home kitchen, the only other equipment you have is a smartphone. Modern smartphones with powerful cameras and sufficient internal memory for editing videos provide culinary enthusiasts with the opportunity to create and share their work with a wide audience. Let’s figure it out together and create a step-by-step guide for a novice blogger.
Planning and Strategy
So, you have an idea based on creating a channel to generate additional income. As in any business, let’s get started with planning and developing a channel development strategy.
And we will start with our future viewers, that is, your target audience. Before you start making content, you need to decide on the audience, with its interests. Your ideal viewer should be in your head. Who is he: a baking lover, a vegetarian, a gourmet or a newbie in cooking? It is the interests of your audience that you will subsequently work to.
Now you need to determine the topic of the channel. Will it be for everyone or will it occupy a narrower niche. Can you specialize in a specific type of cuisine (Japanese, French, Italian), certain dietary restrictions (gluten-free, lactose-free) or various cooking techniques (grilling, baking)? Choose a topic that fascinates you and that can resonate with your target audience.
Now let’s think about the recognition of your channel and yourself on camera or behind the scenes, that is, let’s start creating a recognizable brand. This includes the channel name, logo and color palette that reflect the theme and personality of your channel. This will help to form a coherent and memorable brand that will stand out among many other channels.
Creating Content
Once all the preparatory work has been done, we proceed directly to creating content. And here again we turn on the strategy, because we need to make a plan for the first ten, or better yet, a hundred videos. This will give you confidence and ensure regularity of content publication, which we will talk about in more detail a little later.
In your plan, choose recipes that match your topic, the skills of your audience, and the quality you strive to maintain. Check the recipes carefully, that is, cook them first without filming to make sure they are accurate and feasible. Recipes written in cookbooks and on the Internet often contain many errors and inaccuracies. Once everything has worked out, we proceed to filming.
Use high-resolution video mode on your smartphone for recording, optimally 1920×1080 pixels. Try to use household lighting fixtures at hand. The best thing is when you have good natural daylight from a large window. Shoot from different angles and different plans, that is, change the location of the smartphone, bring it closer to the object to show details, or move it away when you need to capture a general plan.
Use free apps to edit videos to improve the quality of the video, add your logo, music and titles, or add your voice to the video. We recommend ones of the most popular and easy-to-learn programs – VN, CapCut, InShot. Free versions are quite enough for editing a full-fledged video on a smartphone.
During the shooting and after receiving the finished dish, be sure to take photos of the key moments of preparation. The photo of the finished dish will become the cover (preview) of your video. You can write the title of the video on it. Always remember that attractive thumbnails help highlight your videos in search results.
The next step is to take care of the future promotion of your video. This process is called optimization. It includes relevant keywords in titles, descriptions and tags.
So, you have filmed and edited your first few videos. Let’s move on to the next step.
Publishing and Promotion
When to publish? Let’s look at the research, which shows that the best days and times to publish cooking videos are weekdays (especially Tuesday and Thursday) in the morning or lunchtime. This can be changed later, taking into account the statistics of your channel.
Now, measure your capabilities to determine the frequency of publication. From our own experience, we know that the optimal is from one to three publications per week. When your publication schedule is established and becomes stable, then indicate the days and times of publications on the cover of your channel. And remember that regular publications maintain audience engagement.
At first, use social networks to promote your channel. Create your own communities there and join others on your channel topic. Publish links to your videos so that the audience that already exists in the communities can easily switch to your channel. Later, you can also collaborate with other culinary channels, do collaborations with them.
Be sure to respond to comments from your viewers, especially when you have few of them. This helps the algorithms of any platform promote your content. Feedback from the audience will help you understand their needs and improve your content.
And smoothly move on to the next chapter.
Analysis and Optimization
Any modern platform provides you with statistics for analyzing your channel as a whole and each publication in particular. Track your channel metrics, such as views, subscribers, watch time, and engagement. These metrics will help you determine the effectiveness of your content and make the necessary adjustments.
Analyzing your videos helps you determine what worked well and what didn’t. Focus on creating more of the content you like.
This is a work that needs to be done constantly, despite the fact that it takes up a lot of your time. Based on the results of the analysis, you need to adjust your strategy, adapt to changing trends, and make changes to optimize your channel. Cooking channels are a never-ending process of learning and adaptation.
Conclusion
So, we have looked at the steps to create and run a cooking channel using only your smartphone. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create a channel that inspires, educates, and entertains your audience.
By constantly optimizing your content and interacting with your viewers, you can succeed on the platform and share your love of cooking with the world. Remember that success takes time and effort, so do not lose enthusiasm and continue your passion! And may your hobby grow into something more!
